CHAPTER XXVI. 



ON THE SELAXGORE SEA-COAST. 



Malacca. — Selangore.— Klang River and Town. — A Kindred Spirit. —Visit to 

 Jerom on the Sea- coast to Collect. — Bamboo Creek. — A Filthy Chinese 

 Village.— A Foul Stream. — Crocodiles. — Catching a Twelve-foot Crocodile 

 with Hook and Line. — The " Alir." — A Harvest of Saurians again. — Croco- 

 diles in the Sea. — Birds. — Shrimp-eating Monkeys. — An Iguana. — The 

 Slowest Race on Record. — Remarkable Fishes. — Catching Periopthalmi. — 

 An Adventure in Mud, — Various Vertebrates. — Centipedes and their 

 Doings. — Doctoring a Ray-stung Fisherman. — Malay Character. — Return 

 to Klang. 



A WEEK after landing in Singapore, I set off up the coast toward 

 Malacca, in search of good collecting ground. I took with me an 

 intelUgent young Portuguese half-caste as assistant and interpreter, 

 my regular jungle outfit, and all the information I could procure 

 regarding that region. Messrs. Katz Brothers, merchants in Sin- 

 gapore, had ad\ised me to visit the newly opened Territory of 

 Selangore, above Malacca, and suppUed me with a letter of intro- 

 duction to Tunku Dia Udin, a Malay noble, Hving at Klang, the 

 capital, in case I should decide to go there. 



Malacca is about ninety miles up the coast from Singapore. It 

 takes four dollars and fourteen hours by steamer to get you there, 

 and after you have reached it you find only a dull and uninterest- 

 ing, but prettUy shaded town. A few hours spent in industrious 

 inqulrj' convinced me that Malacca was not the place for me, and 

 without a moment's unnecessary delay I changed my programme en- 

 tirely. The little steamer Telegraph was already getting up steam 

 to go to Selangore and I hastened aboard. In the person of the 

 chief engineer, 'Mx. J. M. Hood, a Scotchman, of course, I met a 

 "jolly good fellow," who, from first to last, did everything in his 

 power to make my trip to Selangore agreeable. But for his 

 thoughtful kindness from time to time, I would not have fared 

 nearly so well as I did. He was another of those good fellows 

 one meets in knocking about the world, who are so free with their 



